PURPOSE: To develop a protocol for interviewing scientists about their library and information needs.
TYPE: Qualitative research methodology for semi-structured interviews conducted in-person.
AUDIENCE: Liaison librarians
METHODS: Reviewed studies examining the information behavior of scientists. Developed a concept map of scientific research objectives, associated information activities, and supportive resources and services. The participant’s evaluation of the concept map forms the basis of the interview.
METHODS: Initiated, organized, and promoted the seminar.
SPEAKER: Dr. Antony Williams. He is the Vice President of Strategic Development at the Royal Society of Chemistry and is the host of ChemSpider, a free online structure centric community for chemists.
AUDIENCE: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley personnel, and researchers interested in online collaboration, data storage and curation, data exchange, crowdsourcing, and open access.
FORMAT: 90 minute presentation
DATE AND VENUE: March 24, 2010 – Building 50 Auditorium, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
ABSTRACT: The increasing availability of free and open access resources for scientists on the internet presents us with a revolution in data availability. The Royal Society of Chemistry hosts ChemSpider, a free access website for chemists built with the intention of building community for chemists (http://www.chemspider.com/).
ChemSpider is an aggregator of chemistry related information, at present over 20 million unique chemical entities linked out to over 300 separate data sources, ChemSpider has taken on the task of both robotically and manually curating publicly available data sources. It is also a public deposition platform where chemists can deposit their own data including novel structures, analytical data, synthesis procedures and host data associated with the growing activities associated with Open Notebook Science.
This presentation will examine chemistry on the internet, the dubious quality of what is available and how the ChemSpider crowdsourced curation platform is fast becoming one of the centralized hubs for resourcing information about chemical entities.
We will also review our efforts to provide free resources for synthesis procedures, spectral data and structure-based searching of the chemistry literature and how chemists can contribute directly to each of these projects.
Following the presentation and a question and answer session, a hands on session showing how to search for, curate and deposit data on ChemSpider will be given for interested parties.
AUDIENCE: Springer Journal Open Access Pilot Task Force, University of California
PURPOSE: To identify potential survey questions and research findings to test for an evaluation of the UC Libraries Springer Pilot agreement for open access publishing.
METHODS: Reviewed 8 studies that examined scholarly communication or evaluated open access publishing.
RESULTS:
A concept map illustrating a framework for evaluating open access (Full text PDF)
A spreadsheet identifying pertinent research findings for testing and surveying (Full text PDF)
PURPOSE: To introduce the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – a unique scientific environment with opportunities for engagement and exploration by UC Berkeley Librarians.
INTENDED OUTCOME: To encourage librarians to visit and explore the Berkeley Lab.
FORMAT: 20 minute presentation and 10 minute discussion.
PURPOSE: To identify academic programming models for chemical informatics and draft plans for the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library at UC Berkeley.
METHOD: Reviewed chemical informatics programming at academic and government institutions. Prepared a summary report and drafted preliminary plans for the library.
PURPOSE: To characterize LBNL research and to determine whether it corresponds to the subject expertise of the UC Berkeley Library.
AUDIENCE: UC Berkeley Librarians
METHOD:
A content analysis of the LBNL website (http://www.lbl.gov) identified research organizations and programs at the Berkeley Lab and their corresponding research themes, disciplines, and subject areas.
This information was entered into a Microsoft Access database.
Relationships were assigned between the research disciplines and the subject expertise of the subject specialty libraries of the UC Berkeley Library.
RESULTS:
The subject expertise of the Science Libraries and the Environmental Design Library corresponds to the research conducted at LBNL.
LBNL research was characterized by 6 research themes, which divide into 35 research disciplines and subsequently divide into 486 research subjects. There were 79 research centers and research programs at LBNL counted.
A Microsoft Access database was created (here is the ER diagram).
Reports can be generated showing the relationship between:
Research themes, disciplines, and subjects
Research programs and entities at LBNL
Subject specialty libraries at UC Berkeley Library
Here are some sample reports:
LBNL research themes, disciplines, and subjects (Full text PDF)
Subject specialty libraries and their associated LBNL research disciplines and subjects (Full text PDF)
Research subjects and their associated LBNL research entities (Full text PDF)
